Minister Guilbeault Hosts Ministers Meeting to Discuss Diversity of Online Content

GATINEAU, February 9, 2021

Access to diverse content, with different viewpoints and perspectives, allows for healthy and informed public debates, promotes social inclusion and encourages understanding between countries, cultures and communities This diversity of content is especially important in our online world as it is key to ensuring strong democratic societies.

The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage, hosted a videoconference today with Paul Fletcher, Australian Minister of Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, Annika Saarikko, Finnish Minister of Science and Culture, Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, French Minister of Culture, and Dr. Günter Winands, German Deputy Minister of State for Culture and the Media.

The ministers discussed the importance of promoting a healthy online information ecosystem that supports citizens’ ability to discover and access diverse online content, bolsters resilience against disinformation and encourages social cohesion. They also spoke about shared priorities, like ensuring that news organizations are fairly remunerated when their content is shared online.

Minister Guilbeault and his counterparts expressed their continued support for a Canadian-led, multi-stakeholder working group to develop international guiding principles on the diversity of online content. The guiding principles offer a framework for cooperation among governments, civil society and private sector organizations and will be used as a basis to build a global consensus in this space.

The Government of Canada is proud to support the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, and by extension, international collaboration on diversity of online content.